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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

UIS grad student develops exhibit for Harry Truman Library

A history student from Lincoln country is guest curator for a major exhibit opening this week at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Mo.

Claire Jerry, a graduate history major at the University of Illinois Springfield, is curator of “Tracing the Trumans: An American Story,” a temporary exhibit opening Friday at the Truman Museum.

“It is the story of Harry and Bess Truman before the presidency,” said Jerry, who lives in Jacksonville.

The exhibit focuses on two families — the Trumans and the Wallaces — who settled in the area more than 150 years ago and examines how they were influenced by the Independence area and vice-versa, she said.

Jerry, who served an internship at the Truman Library during the summer of 2010 and returned as a volunteer last summer, drew upon the library’s collection of correspondence and artifacts from the two families, including newly released papers from Bess Truman and Margaret Truman Daniel, daughter of the president and Mrs. Truman. She then developed themes for the exhibit, which will run through the end of December.

Jerry was featured in an March 6, 2012, article in The State Journal-Register.